


stuck on your heartbeat

by Brinny



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Barry and Iris are the Gold Standard, F/M, Gen, Married Barry Allen/Iris West, POV Iris West, Some Fluff, West-Allen Family (The Flash TV 2014) Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 18:56:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17607041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brinny/pseuds/Brinny
Summary: No one on team Flash seems worried that Barry is going to vanish and then never return in five years, huh? I feel like Iris might have some feelings on that.(Also this has the teeniest-tiniest bit about a nervous Barry Allen having sex with Iris for the first time. Because I will forever be mad that we never got to see that.)"After the lightning, Barry’s heart always beats just a little bit faster."





	stuck on your heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at work. Shh! Also, it was before I saw 5.12, but it worked out. Don't you love it when the universe works with you and not against you? Oh, and the title? If you don't watch "Schitt's Creek", a) you should; and b) there's the MOST adorable cover of "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner where they change the last bit of the chorus to "stuck on your heartbeat" and it's seriously the cutest thing in the world and you should all check it out.

 

 

After the lightning, Barry’s heart always beats just a little bit faster.

 

 

Iris likes to put her hands on his chest, likes to feel the quick _thump-thump-thump_ beneath her palms.

She remembers watching him die and likes that she has proof he’s still alive.

 

 

 

“Well, it only beats that fast when I’m thinking about you.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, but I’m thinking about you, like, all of the time.”

 

 

 

The first time they have sex, Barry’s heart is pounding so fast and so hard, that Iris thinks it’s going to break through his ribs.

“Barry?” she asks. She holds her hands on his neck, his pulse racing wildly under the tips of her fingers. “You okay?”

“I’m okay,” he tells her. He closes his eyes for a couple of seconds, then lets out a shaky and stuttering breath, before he starts moving inside of her. “I’m okay. It’s okay. I’m fine.”

Iris tries not to laugh. Really, she does. But he’s just so nervous. He’s so nervous and he’s trying so hard and, oh my god, she loves him so much. And she tries not to laugh, but she does. Just a little.

“Oh, come on,” he says. He sighs and stills in her again. “It’s not funny, Iris.”

“No, you’re right. Sorry. I’m sorry. Keep going.”

But Iris doesn’t stop laughing until Barry silences her with his tongue in her mouth. Yeah, that shuts her up.  

 

 

 

After he comes back from the speed force, Iris can’t sleep unless Barry is beside her. She needs to feel the weight of him next to her. She needs to know that he’s here with her. She needs to know that he’s here with her and he’s alive. He’s here with her and he’s alive and he’s not going to leave her again.

She falls asleep with her back pressed to Barry’s front, his arm around her middle and his cheek touching to hers, comforted by each repeated thud of his heartbeat between her shoulder blades.

(He’s here, she thinks.

_thump-thump-thump_

He’s here with her and he’s alive.

_thump-thump-thump_

He’s here with her and he’s alive and he’s not going to leave her again.

_thump-thump-thump_ )

 

 

 

“I’m not going anywhere, Iris. I promise.”

“I know,” she says. And she tries to make herself believe it. “I know that.”

 

 

 

Iris doesn’t come to bed the night after Nora tells them that Barry goes missing in the crisis and never returns. She sits at their dining room table with a cup of coffee and her laptop, staring at the screen as she waits for an answer to come to her. How can they save him? How can she save him?

Barry stumbles down the stairs sometime in the early hours of the morning. “Iris?”

Leaning over her, he steals a sip of her now, cold coffee and she can’t help but smile as he makes a face.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Nothing,” she says. “Just thinking.”

“Oh, yeah? At three in the morning? What’s going on?”

“I meant it, Barry. I meant when I said that we’re going to change the future. We’ve done it before. You’re not leaving me again. You’re not leaving _us_.”

“Hey, Iris. No,” he says, softly. He presses a kiss into her hair, then kneels in front of her and holds her hands in his. “I’m not going to leave. Or if I do, I’ll come back. But we don’t need to figure all that out tonight, alright? Come on, come to bed.”

“I can’t lose you again, Barry. I can’t do it.”

“You’re not going to lose me, Iris. Ever.”

Pulling her up to her feet, he takes her into his arms. Iris leans her cheek against his chest and can hear the _thump-thump-thump_ of his heart.

 

 

 

Iris is so happy when they find out about her being pregnant with Nora.

But at the first ultrasound, as the sound of their baby’s heartbeat fills the entire room with a rapid _whoosh-whoosh-whoosh_ , Iris can feel her own heart quicken with fear. 

“It sounds so fast. Should it be that fast?”

The tech just smiles up at her, warm and reassuring. “At six weeks? Yes. It’s perfectly normal.”

 

 

 

Nora, of course, is anything but normal.

 

 

 

“Barry!”

“I’ll come back, Iris. I’ll always come back for you. Always.”

 

 

 

Iris pulls Nora into her, cuddling her close to her chest. With her daughter’s small back pressed to her front, she tries to find comfort in each quick _thump-thump-thump_ of Nora’s heartbeat, but all she can think about is how Barry isn’t here.

Barry is gone. He’s not here with her. He’s not here with _them_.

He promised.

“Mom,” Nora half-heartedly protests. “Enough.”

She tries to move out of her mother’s hold, but Iris hugs her just a little bit tighter, snuggles her a just a little bit longer.

“Just a few more minutes, baby,” she says. She strokes her hair and kisses her cheek and focuses on the beating of her heart. “Just let your mama have a few more minutes.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
